The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1887-07-14

the SWORD, Paul calmly says; am now |
ready to be offered, and the time Of
my departure is at hand" But / put
my hand over my eyes. fwant not 10 see
that last struggle. One sharp, keen
stroke, and Paul does go to the banquet
and Paul does dine with the King.
What transition it was! From the
malaria Of Rome TO the finest climate in
all the universe-the zone Of eternal
beauty and health. His ashes were put
in the catacombs of Rome, but in one
moment the air Of heaven bathed from
his soul the last ache From shipwreck,
from dungeon. from the biting pain Of the
elm wood rods, from the sharp sword of
the headsman, he goes into the most bril-
liant assemblage of heaven, q king among
kings, multitudes Of the sainthood rushing
out and stretching forth hands of well
Gomez for do really think that as on the
right hand of God is Christ, so on the
right hand of Christ is Paul, the second
great in heaven.
He changed kings likewise. Before the
hour of death and up to the last moment
he was under Nero, the thick necked, the
cruel eyed, the filthy lipped the sculptured |
features of that man bringing down
to us to this very day the horrible |
possibilities of his nature-seated as he |
was amidst pictured marbles of Egypt, |
under roof adorned with mother of |
pearl in dining room which by ma
chinery was kept whirling day and night |
with most bewitching magniticence; his |
horses standing i'll stalls of solid gold, and |
the grounds around his palace lighted at |
night by its victims, who had been daubed |
with tar and pitch and then set fire to il |
lumine the darkness. That was Paul's |
king. But the next moment he goes into
the realm of Him whose reign is love, and |
whose courts are paved with love, and |
whose throne is set on pillars of love, and
whose scepter is adorned with jewels Of |
love, and whose palace is lighted with
love, and whose lifetime is an eternity of
love. When Paul was leaving so much
on this side the pillar of martyrdom to
gain so much on the other side, do you
wonder at the cheerful valedictory of the
text, ''The time of my departure is at
hand.''
Now, why cannot all the old people of
this congregation have the same holy glee
as that aged man had? Charles I, when
he was combing his head, found gray
hair, and he sent it to the queen as a
great joke; but old age is really no joke
at all. For the last forty years you have
been dreading that which ought to have
been an exhilafation. You say you most
fear the struggle at the moment the soul
and body part. But millions have en-
dured that moment and why not we as
well? They got through with it, and so
can we. Besides this, all medical men
agree in saying that there is probably no
struggle at all at the last moment-not so
much pain as the prick of pin, the seem
ing signs of distress being altogether in
voluntary. But you say: cit is the uncer-
IL. g. aI,s 7
do not play the infidel., After God has
filled the Bible till it can hold no more with
the stories of the good things ahead, bet
ter not talk about uncertainties.
But you say, II cannot bear to think of
parting from friends here" If you are
old you have more friends in heaven than
here. just take the census. Take some
large sheet of paper and begin to record
the names of those who have emigrated
to the other shore; the companions of your
school days, your early business asSOci-
ates, the friends of mid life and those who
more recently went away. Can it be that
they have been gone so long you do not
care any more about them and you do not
want their society? Oh, no. There have
been days whea you have felt that You
could not endure it another mOIent away
from their blessed cOmpanionship. They
have gone. You say you would not like
TO bring them back to this world of
trouble, even if you. had the power. 1t
would not do to trust you. God would
not give you resurrection power. Before
tomorrow morning you you'd be rat
Ting at the gates of the cemetery, crying
to the departed. @Come back to the cradle
where you slept! Come back to the hall
where you used to play! Come back to
bo +ob whom Won 1lCe1 n Cjti'1 and there
would be great burglary in heaven. No,
mol God will not trust you with resur-
rectio4 power, but he compromises the
matter and says. "YOu cannot bring them
where you are, but you can go where they
| arer There are more lovely aoW than
ever Were they beautiful here they ars
more beautiful there.
| Beside that, it is more healthy there for
you than here, aged man; better climate
| there than these hos summers and cold
winters and late springs; better hearing;
| better eye sight, more tonic i'll the air;
more perfume in the bloom; more sweet
ness i'll the song. DO you not feel, aged
| man, sometimes as though you would
| like to get your arm and foot free? Do
you not feel as though you like to throw
| away spectacles and canes and crutches?
Would you not like to feel the spring and
elasticity and mirth of an eternal boy
hood? When the point at which you start
| from this world is old age, and the point
| to which you go is eternal juvenescence,
aged man, clap your hands at the antici-
patton, and say, ip perfect rapture Of
soul: "The time OF nay departure is at
hand"
] remark, again, all those ought to feel
this Joy of the text who have a holy curl
osity to know what is beyond this earthly
terminus. And who has not any curiosity
about it? Paul, suppose, had the most
satisfactory view of heaven, and he says:
"It doth not yet appear what we shall be. "
| It is like looking through a broken tele-
scope: ''Now we see through glass
darlly," Can you tell me anything about
that heavenly place? You ask me a
thousand questions about it that l cannot
answer. l ask you a thousand questions
about it that you cannot answer. And dc
you wonder that Paul was so glad when
martyrdom gave him chance to go over
and make discoveries in that blessed
country?
l hope some day, by the grace Of God, tC
, go over and see for myself; but not now.
No we'll man, no prospercd man, l think
wants to go now. But the time Will come,
, l think, when | shall 80 oyer. l want tC
! see what they do there, and | want to see
{ how they do it. do not want to be look
t ling through the gates ajar forever.
t want them TO swing open. There are
' 10000 things l want Xplained-about you
/ about myself, about the government
' of this world, about God, abou
e everything We start in a plaiI
G path of what we know, and IN 1
d minute come up against a high wall o
0 what we do not know. I wonder how i
/ looks oyer there. Somebody tells me 1t Il
e like paved city-paYed with gold; ant
s another man tells me it is like 2 fountain
/ and il Is like tree, and it is like q tri
!. umphal procession, and the next man
V meet tells me it is all iiSuratiye. reaH,
q want to know, after the body is resnr
q rected, what they wear and what the
e eat; and have an Unreasonable curioslt
u to know what it is, and how it is, an
IS where it is. Columbus risked his life t
find this continent, and shall We shudde